it’s an addiction, an endorphin rush, and cheaper than drugs, but does anyone ever worry about the damage long distance events might be doing to our bodies. at ironman CdA they were doing a study on elevation of troponins (enzymes released when cardiac tissue is damaged). did anyone ever hear about any results from this?
i guess we might not want to know. ignorance is bliss. but, i can’t help wonder if ignoring the pain experience both during racing and after is trying to tell me something…
Rather race and die of a heart attack when I’m old, then get fat lazy and still die of a heart attack when I’m old
I bet the positive results from exercize and racing negate the effects of the bad results
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What Gary said.
Of course it’s bad for you, or it wouldn’t be classsified as “over” exercising. I guess the point at which your volume of exercise becomes bad for you is the point of “over” exercise.
Duhhhh…good point, dug. I guess i didn’t mean to say “over” exercising, but cardiovascualar or stimulating exercises.
I teach diabetics and tell them to get out there and exercise, it is your medicine and must take it. In researching different diets, I came across Dr. Schwarbein’s Program. She is an endocrinologist who has done studies on type 2 diabetics. But anyways…Here’s what got me thinking about this:
"The truth is overdoing cardiovascular exercise is bad for your heart and your metabolism because it breaks you down, especially after the ages of 35-40 when you are entering the normal aging phase of your life. The more you do of these types of exercise, the faster you will age and the more heart attacks you can expect, and the only type of weight loss you will “successfully’ achieve is the loss of lean body tissue that include organs, bones, and muscle.” she goes on “if you overexercise you will never be healthy because you will be using up your body chemicals faster than you can rebuild them. Whenever you use more than you rebuild, you are aging faster than normal.”
(I guess I should say that I am going to be 40 in November.)
Maybe she is full of shit and we should seize life now because ya’ never know when your time is up. Carpe diem, eh?
PS anybody know who the name of the guy at CdA Ironman who had the t-shirt “I run on insulin”? I would like to use him as an example in my classes to tell my students that you can exercise…look at this guy.
First of all, I totally agree with Tom and Gary. I’d rather use this old car and drive it into the ground and enjoy the ride than park it in the garage and do nothing with it. My body has allowed me to race, train and travel in some of the most interesting parts of the world in some of the most hostile climates. I would not trade those experiences for anything.
I will admit, that I am addicted to this stuff (duh???) but it is better than cigarettes etc. I find that compared to the other 40 year olds at work, or in my neighbourhood, I am doing just fine. In fact, compared to most of the 25 year olds, I seem to be doing better (or so I tell myself). What I will concede is that my body is not as happy with high volume and intensity of running. If I jack up intensity, then no volume or vice versa. In general, I have decided that run mileage in general buys me little and the long term trauma of accumulated miles is just not worth it. So I have decided to go on the lower run mileage program, do more biking, XC skiing and weights and this seems to help my overall recovery ability and my overall bike-run times are actually quicker, even though my running is slower. I really should focus on swimming too given the low impact, but I hate swimming in a pool. This year, I have done 5 pool swims and the rest (around 30 swims) have been open water.
I’m more concerned about getting hit by a car or eaten by a mountain lion than damage from over-exercise.
Everything has a price…
Agree, riding in San Diego, my chances is being hit by are car are pretty good it seems, so primarily I will say that TRAINING is more dangerous than most RACING, for TT’s anyway
Crits are another matter
I am considering putting a C4 pack on my chainstays, set to detonate upon extreme impact from the rear
That way I take out the SOB who took me out
(don’t mind me, I just finished a 32k TTT and I’m resting for tomorrows 20k ITT and I’m all jacked up on espresso)
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You can find “studies” that argue for and against high levels of exercise. Personal opinion: “over” exercising is a better vice to have than “over” -eating, -drinking, -obsessing, -worrying, -working, etc., but, like anything, there is a healthy limit. It even seems that some of the conventional wisdom regarding Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in people with a long-term high exercise level may not be true. Then again, it may be true. It’s just not that simple.
LVH isn’t a desireable thing in and of itself. It does seem to be a finding in many athletes, but, there is some level of discussion as to whether it is always a potentially harmful condition. At some point, I think most any cardiologist would say, “this is a potentially harmful level of LVH”, no matter what level of exercise is being done by the person at the moment. But, that point would be different in the eyes of different cardiologists. I know I have some LVH, but, lacking any signs of concomitant cardiovascular disease, I’m not at all concerned. IF a person has cardiovascular occlusive/spastic disease combined with LVH, well, THEN that person has an increased risk of ischemic events which could be damaging/fatal, no matter what level of exercise they are able to achieve at the moment.
I will agree that as one ages, the potential of maximally sustainable healthy level of exercise decreases…this doesn’t mean that you cannot be in better condition at age 60 than at age 30 if you are more diligent at 60 than at 30. But, your potential does decrease after a certain point (35 years, on average?) as you age. No great big news there.
What about “oversexercising”…I suppose thats bad too…But I am not going to stop!!! If ya know what I mean…wink wink…
NAVY DIVERS GO DEEPER AND STAY LONGER
Of course it’s bad for you, or it wouldn’t be classsified as “over” exercising. I guess the point at which your volume of exercise becomes bad for you is the point of “over” exercise.
Yes.
"The truth is overdoing cardiovascular exercise is bad for your heart and your metabolism because it breaks you down, especially after the ages of 35-40 when you are entering the normal aging phase of your life. The more you do of these types of exercise, the faster you will age and the more heart attacks you can expect, and the only type of weight loss you will “successfully’ achieve is the loss of lean body tissue that include organs, bones, and muscle.”
I’m gonna have to call BS on this one. Way too many of us are not only NOT breaking down in our 40’s or having heart attacks, we’re maintaining fitness and in some cases getting faster. Can you exercise to the point of harm? No doubt, but you’ll have to exercise stupid and deaf for a long time to pull it off. The NIH just upped their recommendations in 2005 to 1-1.5 hrs exercise daily for those trying to sustain weight loss. I suspect the science behind the NIH recommendation is better than “The truth” supporting the above statement.
athena i am a diabetic and do ironmans. there is a guy on here vinnie who is diabetic and went 9.20 or so at im brazil. i only managhed to do 10.24 at imnz 